Friday, April 19, 2013

Pandan Kaya Butter Cake

After buying a pack of fresh pandan leaves 2 weeks ago, I have been thinking what I can do with pandan leaves. There are so many possibilities, pandan chiffon cake, kaya jam, nasi lemak, pandan chicken, the list goes on and on. But the prospect of using up 40 blades of pandan leaves at one go, is actually quite daunting! After 2 weeks of resting in the fridge (due to my bad bout of diarrhoea), they have invited some unwelcome guests (mould!!!) to their party. But luckily, they can still be salvaged, I just cut away the parts that have turned mouldy or black, I am not gonna throw such expensive pandan leaves away just like that! Considering the same amount of pandan leaves would only set me back by less than 0,50 euro back in Singapore, this 250g pack of fresh pandan leaves was considered very expensive at 3,50 euro!Now, how many pandan chiffon cakes do I have to make out of these 40 pandan leaves in order to make my 3,50 euro worthwhile? Haha.After some consideration, I chose this Pandan Kaya Butter Cake over a couple of other Pandan Chiffon Cake recipes which I have been thinking about. This Pandan Kaya Butter Cake is a recipe which I have bookmarked for nearly 3 years. I have always procrastinated on trying out this recipe due to the absence of either kaya jam or fresh pandan leaves. Now that I have both, I can't procrastinate anymore.

I wouldn't say this is a very easy cake. After reading Yochana 's blog, I realised a lot of people had problems with the cake batter curdling after adding in the coconut milk. Luckily, I didn't have such a problem bcos the coconut milk I was using was rather liquid and I made sure I mixed them well every time I added each ingredient. The only problem I had was that the cake batter leaked from my springform cake pan and dropped onto the bottom of the oven, creating a big mess and a charred smell that lingered in my kitchen for a long time. And I forgot that this was a butter cake which didn't require greasing since there was already so much butter, so I greased the sides of the cake pan. As a result, there was a lot of oil bubbling at the sides when the cake was done. Strange enough, it was difficult to remove the cake despite using a springform pan. Last but not least, I was a little disappointed that my pandan kaya butter cake didn't turn out green, I was expecting a nice natural green colour. But the taste was really good, it was moist and buttery and had a great flavour from the fresh pandan juice and you could taste a tinge of the home-made kaya jam. How I wish I had put in more kaya jam! Next time perhaps :)By the way, this is my 201th post. After 3 years, I am still at it. Incredible. :)

Ingredients250g butter at room temp200g fine sugar
1 tbsp kaya (updated: homemade kaya recipe in 15 min)6 eggs *150ml 180ml canned coconut milk **50ml pandan leave juice, freshly squeezed ***1/4 tsp salt
300g cake flour 1 tsp baking powder3 tbsp milk powderMethod1. Using a cake-mixer, cream butter and sugar until creamy. Add in kaya and mix well.2. Add in eggs one at a time, mix well after each addition. Add in coconut milk, pandan juice and salt and mix well.3. Sift the cake flour, milk powder and baking powder together. Add in the sifted flour mixture into the cake batter in 3 additions and use a spatula to gently fold in the flour.4. Pour the cake batter into a 8-inch round springform cake pan and put it into a preheated oven and bake at 175 degrees celsius for at least 60 min. I baked mine for 70 min. You can use a 8-inch round pan or a 7-inch square pan, they are about the same size.5. After 1 hour, remove from oven and use a toothpick to check if the cake is done. Invert the cake and allow it to cool on a baking rack before removing it from the cake pan.Note: - Each egg is about 65 to 70g with shell, they are eggs from my 2 chickens- I am using Chao Koh brand coconut milk, one box contains 250ml. Not the best brand but the only brand I have at home, it is rather watery.

- Use 1 cup of fresh pandan leaves, about 5 leaves or 25g, cut into 1cm pieces, blend in a blender with 1 cup of water, then strain through a fine sieve, to obtain 50ml of concentrated pandan juice. This is the first blend.You will get more than 50ml, what you saw in the glass jar was the remaining after removing 50ml. The remaining pandan juice can be kept in a sterilized glass jar in the fridge and be kept for a few days.

- Note that total amount of coconut milk and pandan juice should not exceed 200g, otherwise cake becomes too wet and dense.

2 comments:

Hi Miss B,did you know that you can freeze pandan leaves? I usually buy a bunch of fresh pandan leaves and freeze any remaining unused ones in a paper bag or just plastic bag or aluminium foil. They last a long time. Anytime I want to make nasi lemak, or a Malay dessert etc just take the amount of frozen pandan leaves required. They are as good as fresh :-) BTW, love the texture of your pandan kaya cake. Looks moist and must be delicious.

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